"We hope they can appreciate the historical significance of trees in such an urban area," said Bartlett, president of the fund's board of trustees, who has been working with the school's agricultural program for the past 10 years. "We're always looking to cultivate the next round of people to pass on the legacy."

McMaster said he and Andrew Schichtel of Oregon-based Schichtel Nursery in the fall 2007 approached the Department of Parks and Recreation with the idea to graft the historic trees, which they carried out at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia and Theodore Roosevelt's family home in Oyster Bay, N.Y.

"Every tree New York City gets back will have the original DNA of the historic trees," McMaster said.

The initiative started in January 2008 with students helping them take branches from historic trees in Central Park, including those that were alive during the Revolutionary War, as part of the MillionTreesNYC program to plant one million trees by 2017.

The new trees are created through a several-year process at Schichtel Nursery during which a branch from the original tree is grafted onto a host tree's root system and then the foliage with the original tree's DNA is replanted to grow a complete replica of the original tree, McMaster said.

"People forget that trees are living organisms that eventually die," he said. "This is a chance for us to preserve the genetic material and engage people in trees that have a story attached to them."

The goal is to further develop John Bowne High School's agricultural program to teach the grafting technique in its growing area and add a historical and writing component to the curriculum, McMaster said.

"We hope to expand the program to other schools throughout the city," he said.

The program's educational component will give students an opportunity to learn about the historical and literary significance of trees, in addition to their biological makeup, said M. Janet Bornancin, executive director of the fund, based in Naperville, Ill.

"If these trees could talk, they would be able to tell us some interesting stories, I'm sure," she said.